A city at the center of an AI data center frenzy just voted to ban them

• A New Jersey city has banned new data center developments.
• The decision effectively blocks a proposed data center giant.
• The ban comes amid a backlash against a data center boom in southern New Jersey.

A city at the heart of an AI data center boom in southern New Jersey has voted to ban them.

That means one of the largest data center proposals in the state’s history is unlikely to happen.

The Millville Board of Commissioners made the decision during a meeting on Tuesday evening, writing in an ordinance that “data centers are incompatible with the City’s land use planning objectives, infrastructure capacity, and community character.”

“The Commissioners therefore determine that the construction and operation of data centers within the City would be detrimental to the public health, safety, and welfare,” the commissioners said.

The decision brings to a halt the proposed 1.4 gigawatt Millville Energy & Data Center Campus, which would have spanned over 60 acres. A1 Data Center, the company behind the project, did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Business Insider.

Southern New Jersey has emerged as something of a hub for AI data center construction, in part because of its proximity to major cities like New York and Philadelphia and its access to natural gas and transmission networks.

Several other data centers have been proposed — or are already being built — in the area, including a 300-megawatt data center in neighboring Vineland that would supply compute to Microsoft.

While large data centers have been around for decades, their scale has grown exponentially as AI companies like OpenAI and Anthropic seek more compute to power their products.

Many Americans — a majority of whom are unexcited about AI, according to a recent study — are now resisting these massive data centers in their communities. They worry that they could drain their water supply, raise utility bills, cause unwanted noise, raise temperature levels, and impede their quality of life.

In its ordinance on Tuesday, the Millville commissioners cited many of these issues, writing that “large-scale data centers and similar facilities generate significant infrastructure demands.”

It also said any jobs created by the project were limited relative to its size. The companies behind data centers have argued that they are good for communities because they create jobs, though many of those jobs are in construction and temporary.

The Climate Revolution Action Network, an environmental nonprofit based in New Jersey, told Business Insider in a statement that it spent months organizing residents to oppose the Millville data center.

“This is a winning coalition and something we need to see more of across the country,” one of the group’s leaders, Kayleigh Henry, said. “These corporations may have more money than us, but they’re no match for people speaking out and making their voices heard.”

The Climate Revolution Action Network and other groups are now working to secure a statewide moratorium on data center construction.

This month, a coalition of anti-data center groups asked New Jersey Gov. Mikie Sherrill to impose a moratorium on approving and constructing new data centers that use at least 20 megawatts of power “until regulations or legislation are implemented to protect ratepayers and consumers, maintain electric grid reliability, and minimize environmental impacts.”